Sun Tzu and Sales

How Sun Tzu's Art of War Applies to Sales

Sun Tzu is popular among salespeople.  To serve this market, a number of authors have written books that link Sun Tzu to sales.  This author has been actively selling since the early nineties, and has applied ideas from Sun Tzu to the selling process, albeit to include a different approach than most other authors have examined.

 

Sun Tzu writes about advantages and how to gain them.  I do seek to gain advantages over my competitors.  They are my adversaries after all.  I avoid, however, actively seeking an advantage over my customers.  That kind of advantage tends to be counterproductive in the long-term.  Instead, I seek to provide my customers with advantages over their adversaries, better enabling them to act in accord with Sun Tzu’s principles.  To do this, I need to know my customers and myself, and the process of gaining that knowledge produces very positive sales results for all involved.

 

I have published a product called The Sales Strategy Fundamentals that is not obviously related to Sun Tzu.  Look a little deeper, however, and it ties into one of the most important but most often overlooked aspects of using Sun Tzu’s ideas.  That aspect is to know the fundamentals of your profession perfectly.  As an illustration, Sun Tzu said, “to feign disorder, you must first have perfect order.”

 

 

Purchase The Sales Strategy Fundamentals on Amazon.com

 

	"An outstanding product." F. G. (Buck) Rodgers - Corporate Vice President IBM Sales & Marketing (Ret.)
	“The Sales Strategy Fundamentals is an excellent tool for improving sales performance.  It takes users right to the heart of professional selling and presents the skills needed to succeed with exceptional clarity.” Brian Lambert, CEO of the United Professional Sales Association

 

 

The underlying idea is the same in sales.  Not that you should ever be feigning disorder, though I have learned that with some customers wearing your best suits can be a turn off.  But before you can become a master seller, you must have the fundamentals down perfect.  The best in professional sales never stop practicing the fundamentals, just as in Sun Tzu’s times, soldiers never stopped drilling.  The fundamentals have to come naturally, without the salesperson thinking about them too much, or customers read right into them.  That means customers might not trust your actions, even when you work in their best interests.    

 

Click here for more information on The Sales Strategy Fundamentals.